Daughter confesses to killing deputy dean

The daughter of a senior academic who was found dead in her home early on Monday confessed to the murder late yesterday afternoon. Deputy Dean of Ankara University's School of Medicine Professor Olcay Aydıntuğ, 53, was found dead in her home in the Bilkent University area of the capital in the early morning with her throat slit. Başak Aydıntuğ, 21, the victim's daughter, who apparently suffered a head injury from a sharp object, was initially taken into custody for questioning. Aydıntuğ first said a stranger broke and killed her mother but later confessed to the murder when gendarmerie officers interrogated her for a second time based on her contradictory statements during the initial questioning.

According to gendarmerie sources, the victim's daughter told police she was studying in her room at the time when she heard voices and saw a stranger grappling with her mother. "I intervened, that's how I got injured. But that person fled. I ran out of the house in panic and started screaming for help." Crime scene investigations revealed no evidence of a break-in.

"We fought, and so I killed her," Aydıntuğ later told officers at the Çankaya Gendarmerie Station during her second interrogation later in the day.

Olcay Aydıntuğ was a professor at the immunology department of the A.Ü. School of Medicine.

A security officer employed at the housing complex where the family resides said he heard an ambulance arrive at 4 a.m. "Her daughter was panicked and shocked. Later the crime scene teams arrived and found no sign of a break-in. We did not hear anything, either."